Tracy Press

The Cougars’ Mary Jane Guillna, 9, and the rest of the novice football team will play in the their first championship game in Stockton on Saturday. Photo by Enrique Gutierrez/Tracy Press.

Mary Jane Guillna, 9 (right), tackles a Cougars novice teammate during practice Thursday. Photo by Enrique Gutierrez/Tracy Press.

Being 9 years old and getting dropped off at your first football tryout is intimidating enough for anybody.

But imagine not knowing anybody else you’re trying out with, never having played on an organized team before — on top of being the one and only girl.

Yikes.

That’s what happened to Mary Jane Guillna in August, when she tried out for the Tracy Cougars novice squad. Though her mother, Sophie Wan, had suited up for the Tracy Raiders, her stepdad coached youth football and the entire family tossed the ball around the backyard, Guillna had never played in pads before.

Wan said she “nearly flipped my wig” when Guillna told her she wanted to play. Her father even opposed the idea at first, but Guillna held firm.

So she signed up and showed up.

“Some of the boys were like, ‘She’s not going to make it,’” Guillna said recently. But, lo and behold, she made it through the two weeks of tryouts and onto the team, seeing action as a running back.

And some of those original doubters and detractors, some of whom had seen action the year before?

Cut. Beat out by a girl.

That one might take years for some people to get over, but Guillna’s teammates and coaches say her gender barely matters.

“We just welcomed her like we would anyone else,” Cougars offensive coordinator John Harvey said. “I mean, football’s tough for a kid who’s never played, and that goes for a boy or girl … but it didn’t surprise me (that she made cuts) when I watched how hard she worked.”

While girls have been on the roster before, Guillna is the first girl Cougar to finish out an entire season, team officials said. About four other teams in the Delta Youth Football League also have girls on the roster.

“I don’t look at (her gender), I look at her as my backup running back,” Harvey added, noting that she’s played in every game, carried the ball in nearly every game and tallied her share of 20-, 25-yard runs. “She’s done just as good as any of the other running backs.”

And maybe the most notable thing about Guillna is how small a deal playing with her seems to be for her teammates.

“She’s a good teammate,” said Christian Velasco, 9, a fourth-grader at Kelly School. “She respects others … she’s pretty good.”

“It’s pretty fun to have a girl on the team — it’s a fun experience,” said Jaelin Ratliff, a Discovery Charter School sixth-grader. “She’s pretty much the best girl I’ve ever seen play football.”

Her first year will wrap up when the Cougars play in the organization’s first Super Bowl on Saturday. Guillna plans to play next year with the JV squad, but her first year will probably stick with her for a while.

“I didn’t think I would make it this far,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d get an experience like this, to wear pads and knock people over and play on a boys football team.”

“They say it’s only a boys' sport, but girls can play it, too.”

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written by bigdog , November 30, 2007

Nice story Chris !! MJ is very special.